


The Dollmaker

by surenlicious



Series: The Dollmaker [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Angst and Tragedy, Body Horror, F/M, Haunting, Just a little horror story featuring my OCs, Murder, Mutilation, Original Character Death(s), Original Character(s), Original Universe, Possession, a bit of spooky fun right before Halloween
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-25
Updated: 2018-10-25
Packaged: 2019-08-07 12:59:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,333
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16408976
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/surenlicious/pseuds/surenlicious
Summary: In a small, traditional village there lived a dollmaker who's crafts brought joy to the townspeople's faces. His dolls were admired, loved and people always looked forward to the dollmaker's newest creations being showcased for Halloween. Their joy was soon overshadowed by villagers disappearing each year in the days before Halloween. The dollmaker soon learns something horrid is stalking their steps, claiming each of them one by one.And yet despite knowing that, he refuses to share his terrible secret.





	The Dollmaker

 

Once upon a time, there lived a dollmaker in a small village. Surrounded by forests, the villagers lived from whatever the trees would kindly provide for them. For the Dollmaker, the forests gave him wood and timber, which he graciously used for his craft. He would work all year to make his dolls, never displaying a single one of them until he was done and felt the time was right to unveil them.

That very time came each year with Halloween, where the Dollmaker presented his finest and quirkiest dolls all over the village. It became a village tradition for the villagers to eagerly await and admire the Dollmaker’s beautiful craftsmanship with great excitement, for it brought joy to all that lived there.

As the years passed, another tradition slowly but surely seemed to overtake the village’s happy times. It all started with a local fisherman disappearing on the night before Halloween. He would never be found again, and in respects to the family, the Dollmaker created a new doll to be hung amongst the others; a exact doll replica of the local fisherman. His family, appreciating the Dollmaker’s gift, allowed the doll of their loved one to be displayed on Halloween, hoping for his return.

However, it would not remain with one disappearance. Each year, another villager would disappear, and each time the Dollmaker out of respect for the family, created an exactly replica doll of their loved one. With the years, aside the Dollmaker’s Halloween dolls, more and more dolls representing the missing villagers came to hang beside them. The Dollmaker’s joy seemed to have faded from his face altogether too, having become depressed and paranoid with each year that passed.

One day, the Dollmaker would no longer bring out his Halloween dolls. The villagers, upset and worried, pleaded with him to at least share with them this joy. The Dollmaker however warned them, “Please return to your homes. Remember what happens each year, another one of us disappears! I beg of you, please stay at home.” The Dollmaker ushers.

“Nay, my old friend.” The local accountant speaks up, a young man in his twenties. “Let us bring joy to this village! Ever since you were a child you’ve been making these dolls for us, heck, I’ll personally help you decorate the village this time, what do you say?” The Dollmaker, knowing he can’t refuse his old friend relents reluctantly. “…Alright then. But I want us to finish before dark, alright?” He insists.

“Of course! Now’s let’s get on with it.” The Accountant smiles and rolls up his sleeves to work.

The two of them proceed to work all afternoon decorating the village. The Accountant sees his old friend being quiet and reserved and attempts to keep up the small talk with him as he tries to cheer him up. As he hang the last doll from his cart, he wipes the sweat from his brow. “Phew. How about I check to see if we’ve got them all?” He offers, and the Dollmaker nods. “Please do. I’ll have a cup of tea waiting for you when you’re done.”

The Accountant slowly descends the stairs to the basement, looking around. Some missing parts here and there, but it seemed to him everything was used. Everything except…wait.

The young man blinks as he sees a door in the back of the room. Was that there before? The dolls being stacked up probably hid it from sight but…

Curiosity overtakes the Accountant and he walks up it. It is painted a deep, dark red and strange paper tags are slapped all over it. Running a finger over one tag, he notices a strange black spiral drawn upon each of them. To add to it…the Accountant felt a strange, ominous feeling coming from the door. It felt as if it was reeling him in. As if…it calls out. Before he can think it over wether or not it is a good idea, his hand is already on the doorknob and the door is opened. The Accountant walks in, swallowing.

The room is dark, cold and damp. What the heck was this place for, the Accountant thinks suspiciously. The room is empty, nothing was inside except for large window with iron bars in front of them, high above. He finds a old, rundown broken bed too. He’s just about to give up and leave the room, when his eye caught something. Something…green.

The Accountant blinks as he leans back to open the door behind him some more to let the outside light in, and he intermediately is captivated by what he finds.

On that same old bed, he finds the gleam of green attached to a form, and the Accountant sees it is the form of a human, a female. Slowly scuffling forward, the Accountant is greeted by another doll, a very beautiful doll of a female with long, curly hair bright green with blue tips. Her eyes are each a different color, her right is a deep dark blue with a golden iris, while her left is the exact opposite being gold with a blue iris. She’s dressed in a pitch black torn dress and her body is lying in a twisted position, as if being dumped there and never tended to again.

The Accountant is mesmerized as his eyes remain glued on the beautiful doll in front of him. As he slowly approaches her further, the gleam of metal then catches his eyes next. He finds it belonging to a chain, and as he follows that chain with his eyes he sees it’s attached to her wrist. The Accountant blinks, for he sees all four of her limbs are tied down with these same chains and cuffs, locking her tightly in place. When he looks at the doll’s face again, he finds another paper tag placed on her forehead, larger than the others and with a more complex spiral inscription than the ones he’d found on the door.

As his eyes get adjusted to the dark, that’s when he finally sees the doll’s entire body to be covered with the same paper tags he found on the doorway. Why in the heck would-

“What are you doing…?! Step away from her, quickly!”

“Wha- Hey!” The Accountant sputters as he’s reeled back by the hem of his jacket as the Dollmaker hauls him back to the doorway, glaring fearfully at the doll in front of them. “Calm down, I was just checking if we’ve forgotten anything and then I found her…” The Accountant tries to explain himself with a small smile. But his smile soon fades as the Dollmaker glares at him, his ruby eyes filled with fear and despair. “No, my old friend.” The Dollmaker says to him quietly. “This doll….must never see the light. Forget what you saw, I beg of you.”

“But she’s…beautiful. She’s the prettiest doll you’ve ever made!” The Accountant protests, slightly concerned at his friend’s growing anxiety.  The Dollmaker sighs and ushers him out and slams the door shut, checking the seals. “She’s…no. Please, not another word.”

The rest of the afternoon was spent in silence. The Accountant couldn’t believe his friend wouldn’t display the most beautiful doll he’d ever created, and…he couldn’t get the doll out of his head either. She was the most beautiful depiction of a woman he’d ever seen, he didn’t even think anyone in this world could have hair like she had, or eyes with such bright colors. He’d never cease to be amazed by his friend’s talent, even though…it irked him he wouldn’t show it to the world.

Thanking his friend after a day of hard work, the Accountant left his friend and retreated to his house. He didn’t live far from the Dollmaker’s house, as his own was just by the river. As he entered his house, it was already dark. Halloween would be starting at midnight, and he vaguely remembered the Dollmaker’s request to stay indoors. The villagers liked to admire the Dollmaker’s work from inside their houses, given the many disappearances over the years. Taking off his jacket, the Accountant plopped down on the couch.

The rustle of paper underneath him was what spiked his attention.

“What the-” He muttered and slowly stood up again, looking underneath him. Nothing was on the couch, so that means…

He searched the back of his pants and there it was, a piece of paper. “Probably one of my files lying around I bet…” The Accountant chuckled, when he felt it to be thinner than the paper files he always carried. Now he had to look. Bringing his hand in front of him, the Accountant blinked when he held a paper tag from the Dollmaker’s house in his hands. The same ominous spiral stared back at him, and the Accountant immediately felt a sense of dread come over him.

How did that get here? Even though the Dollmaker’s house only had them slapped on the strange door in the basement and on that pretty doll of his, not one of them was actually loose. And he had walked all the way here, a piece of paper that thin shouldn’t…

The Accountant looked around. The wind didn’t blow it off of him and he hadn’t heard the paper when he walked. Slowly, he sat it down on the coffee table. At the very least, he had to return it to his friend. Yeah, he’d do that tomorrow- no wait. Tomorrow was Halloween, and given the disappearances it was probably not a good idea to go out. Fine, the day after then. Glancing at the clock, he figured it was better to go to bed next.

Tiredly, the Accountant walks up to his room and without turning the lights on he takes off his shoes and business clothes and searches around for a shirt to wear.

The same rustle of paper stops him in his tracks.

The Accountant looks around. He could have sworn he didn’t have any paper in his room, yet that sound clearly was that of a piece of paper. Checking his feet to make sure he hadn’t stepped into papers he’s accidentally left behind, the Accountant couldn’t help but blink in confusion when he found nothing.

If it was only the sound he could shake it off, but that same feeling of dread he felt at the paper tag overtook his being again. Sighing, and thinking his friend’s reaction to him discovering the doll caused some of the Dollmaker’s paranoia to rub off on him, the Accountant plucks his night shirt off the ground and pulls back the covers to crawl into his bed and-

There, on his pillow, lies the same paper tag he found in his living room. The Accountant’s eyes widen. The tag…he was sure he left it in the living room. There was no way it suddenly could have gotten stuck to him and lifted with him to his room…was there?

Swallowing, the Accountant gently puts the tag on the nightstand and crawls into bed. He’d defiantly had to return this tag to the Dollmaker, he figured and slowly closes his eyes and falls into an uneasy sleep soon after.

And when the Accountant is then rudely awakened by the feeling of dread having intensified beyond what he felt before, he shoots up and quickly sits up in bed when he feels a horrible wave of hatred overtake his room entirely. Looking beside him, the tag is still where he left it on the nightstand, but he swears it’s not the tag giving off the terrible aura this time.

His eyes look through the room, frantic, but he finds nothing. Yet he feels disaster is upon him, something was there. Something he can’t shake off, for the Accountant feels a presence with him in his room. Someone was there with him and he couldn’t hear or see it. He felt it.

“Who’s there?!” He finally speaks up. Without turning his eyes away from looking around his room, he feels around for the light switch of the lamp beside him. When he flicks it on, the lamp doesn’t work. He tries it again and again, but the light isn’t turning on. “…Damnit.” The Accountant curses softly, when he finally feels…eyes on him.

Slowly, he looks in front of him and there, by the feet of his bed, stands a figure. His very blood freezes in his veins upon seeing a person stand in the room with him, a person who moved there with him soundlessly. He can’t make out anything in the dark, no features or anything, but he feels straight up that the wave of dread he’s felt before comes from this person.

“Who are you…!?” He then demands, and finds his voice to be shaking but still determined. The person doesn’t move, until he sees it takes a step forward. And when it does, the Accountant’s heart skips a beat entirely.

For in front of him, showing itself in the dim moonlight, stands the doll he found in the Dollmaker’s basement. Not a single tag is on her body, and the chains are wrapped around her limbs, making her move soundlessly.

“Y-you…Y-y-you’re…that..this isn’t…possible…!” The Accountant stammers, and before he can move, she crawls up on the bed, moving with her inhumane movements, faster than anything he’s ever felt before and she’s on top of him one hand slamming his throat, the other grabbing his elbow snapping it at it’s joint. Her choke-hold makes it impossible for him to howl in the pain that overtakes him, and as she chokes the life out of him, he sees the evil glint in her eyes to be the last thing on this Earth before her jaws open wide and he feels white-hot pain seer through him as she bites down his throat.

The next morning his corpse, and the horrendous scene is discovered by the locals. Along with the Accountant’s body, the mutilated bodies of the other missing villagers are found inside the house of the Accountant, each of them horribly mutilated but most disturbing of all; all of them were missing either their organs, their muscles, veins, blood or even just their bones. When the Dollmaker is told of his friend’s passing and the mutilation done to him, the Dollmaker swallows and shut the door before marching downstairs and slamming the basement door open in fury.

There he finds the doll he’s been trying to suppress for years, sitting on the bed with her legs folded. Blood is streaming out of the seams of her porcelain body, her jaws wide open and pieces of flesh sticking out of them. She eyes him directly and the Dollmaker is livid at the scene of the horrible truth.

“…Were the villagers not enough…?” He asks her, low and menacing. “Was it not enough for you to kill them and hide them in God knows where for all those years??? Have you suddenly changed strategies, and instead of actually killing me you go and destroy all the others I love FIRST??? This has to STOP!!” The Dollmaker finally screams, and as he pants, the doll in front of him makes no move.

Then the Dollmaker jumps as her jaws slam shut, and with a low chuckle, she begins to talk. “Stop?” She asks him calmly, and the Dollmaker’s face twists in anguish as he hears a familiar voice come from the doll’s mouth. “I am not done yet…I found the bodies of men to be tougher and stronger for the deed I need to do…the deed of my vengeance.”

Slowly, her head looks up, and he sees her smile evilly at him, taking joy at his pained expression. “Do you like the voice I selected? I had to rip out his little throat…but your Accountant has a nice deep voice, don’t you think?” The Dollmaker shakes in anger as he clenches his fists. “You took….you took his vocal cords…too….?” He whispers menacingly.

The doll gives one nod. “To remind you of what is to come.” She speaks with the broken vocal cords of his friend. “Make no mistake, husband. I will remake my body and use the organs and body parts of your villagers to do so. With each Halloween my power peaks, making me move and do whatever I want and believe me...I can do more than your seals can suppress.”   She warns him.

The Dollmaker grits his teeth. “This is between you and ME! Leave them out of this, it is not too late to stop this!”

The doll then stands up straight, the Dollmaker taking a step back, though she makes no move yet. “Oh, it will be about you and me soon enough. Though I wonder if you can stop me…I have the agility of the Fisherman’s muscles, the strength of the Blacksmith’s bones, the vitality of the Mayor’s son’s heart, the lungs of the village Bards, and the veins of the many pathetic fools that were captivated by the women of this village. Your blood will come last…husband.”

The Dollmaker reels back at the sound of his former’s wife’s evil laughter and he quickly takes out a new stack of paper tags from his coat. Immediately the doll ceases her laughter, though she makes no move to stop him. “Halloween is coming to it’s end…soon I will have to wait another year before I can move again.” She says to him quietly, but menacingly. “Don’t think you will get away with what you are, what you DID, and how the world will see you next.”

The Dollmaker, seeing the movements of his former wife slow, approaches her. “It was a accident.” He tells her, mournful and quiet.

The doll glares at him. “I’m sure that is what you THINK it was. You RUINED my body by turning it into…THIS.” The doll growls at him, her stolen voice making her words even more menacing. “Make no mistake, husband…With this same constructed body I will CRUSH you. And I will use the parts of all the people you love to do so…”

The Dollmaker, looking at her sorrowfully, gently places the first tag on her forehead, causing the doll to crumple down on the floor as it’s power chains the rancorous spirit within. Though it no longer can move, it refuses to silence.

“Go on, dear.” It mocks him, evilly. “Place your pretty papers. Like the chains, I will break free of ALL of them within the year!”

The Dollmaker utters no word as he with the gentlest hand places his paper tags all over the doll’s body, eventually taking away it’s ability to speak. For another year at least.

Picking her up in bridal style, with his same gentle hand, places the corpse of his wife back on the bed. As he walks away into the basement to pick up a new set of chains, he finds the eyes of his wife on him, glowering at him in deep hate. Swallowing, knowing his seals aren’t fully suppressing her angry spirit, he comes to her again and chains her wrists and ankles again. Sighing, he bends down and stops until he’s near her ear.

“I dare not to ask you for forgiveness…dearest.” The Dollmaker says to her softly, almost lovingly. “I have made horrible mistakes…and you paid the price for them. But I swear to you, I will find a way to make things right again.”

Carefully, he brushes the loose strands of her hair away from her face. Her eyes still remain on him, the hate within hasn’t relented. The Dollmaker then slowly gets up and moves toward the door again. Glancing over his shoulder, he gives her a watery smile before he gently closes the basement door and locks it tight.

He doesn’t see the twitching of her fingers.

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this little horror story last year for Halloween and I've felt the need to expand this universe. I didn't want to go in full detail with the murders and what not yet, as horror is a new genre for me to write for. But I wanted to put my OCs in another universe for them to enjoy, so there you go. I hoped you liked it and do leave a comment or come yell at me on Tumblr @surenlicious :D


End file.
